German Vettel, who qualified on pole and led at Suzuka from start to finish, became the first driver this season to win back-to-back races to go favourite for a hat-trick of titles.
And the result from the Land of the Rising Sun means Alonso remains on 194 points with Vettel, on 190, closing in on him.
Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton are further behind in third and fourth on 157 and 152 points respectively, with fifth-placed Mark Webber (134) and Jenson Button (131), in sixth, as the only other drivers to reach a century of points.
The key to this race was undoubtedly to avoid the first corner carnage, part of which was caused, entirely unsurprisingly, by Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.
Frenchman Grosjean had only recently been banned from racing in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza after causing a first-corner pile-up at Spa in Belgium.
And, although he stayed out of trouble in the night race in Singapore, this latest crash means he has now been involved in seven first-lap, and one second-lap, incidents this season.
This has prompted Red Bull driver Webber to call Grosjean "a nutcase", adding: "He needs to have a look at himself. It was completely his fault.
"How many mistakes can you make? How many times can you make the same error? It's quite embarrassing at this level for him."
But, while the Australian suffered in falling from his starting position of second to a ninth-place finish, it was Championship leader Alonso who was the biggest loser on Sunday.
The Spaniard's retirement was actually caused by Grosjean's Lotus team mate Räikkönen after the Finn punctured the left rear tyre of the Ferrari on rejoining the track having run slightly wide.
Meanwhile, a third incident saw Williams's Bruno Senna run into Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, with Rosberg retiring.
But, for the drivers who avoided all of this - including Vettel - a fruitful race began and, indeed, the first corner action was the most vital part of a largely unremarkable race.
That this was the case should still provide the BBC with no excuse for not opting for Suzuka as one of its 10 choices.
The Japanese circuit is a drivers' favourite, and a historic reminder of the glorious late 1980s era of F1 when it was the venue for three successive title deciders between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. In fact, in the run-up to the race, the BBC website even dedicated a blog to the majesty of Suzuka.
Moreover, while the BBC could not be sure that this would actually be the case when it made its picks, a failure to provide live coverage of this race prevented the pundits from having the opportunity to analyse some already significant moves for 2013.
For a start, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher has retired for good, having rarely threatened to reproduce anything like the dominance he showed in the early part of the last decade.
Perhaps Schumacher's final decision came after he ran into Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne in Singapore, his third successive crash at the track since he rejoined F1 in 2010. Obviously, the 43-year-old's eyesight is not quite what it used to be...
Even before then, the German had already been replaced as Briton Hamilton moved away from the McLaren team which he joined as a 13-year-old boy.
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh described Hamilton's move as "a mistake" for the driver but Hamilton seemed satisfied with his decision.
After all, while Mercedes may be some way behind McLaren on the grid still this season, who knows what 2013 holds, especially if Ross Brawn and Hamilton can create a dream partnership?
It is not even as if McLaren has been the ultimately dominant force over the last few years, though the team did act quickly to bring in Sauber's impressive Sergio Perez to race alongside Button next year.
Of course, the 2012 has yet even to be decided but, further down the grid, Felipe Massa and Kamui Kobayashi did their hopes of staying in F1 the world of good after stepping on the podium at Suzuka.
For Massa, his second place was a first post-race champagne dousing in 37 attempts since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, and it may well still have come as too little, too late.
However, there seem to be no such doubts now about Kobayashi after the Sauber driver reached a half-century of points for the season in style in front of his adoring fans.
Kobayashi was the first Japanese driver since Aguri Suzuki in 1990 to reach the podium on home soil in the country's joint-best F1 result - and the supporters were not shy in showing their appreciation to the 26-year-old.
But, while there was unbridled joy in Suzuka for Kobayashi, there was also recent sadness in the sport as a whole after the announcement of the death of Professor Sid Watkins on 13 September.
The neurosurgeon, who was a close friend of the late three-time champion Senna, served as the sport's medical delegate from 1978 until 2004, and he was instrumental in introducing many of the safety improvements during that period.
Consequently, this seems an appropriate place to finish this blog though, having criticised the BBC earlier, I should add that at least it got this tribute spot on. Professor Watkins was 84 years old.
CALENDAR
| Date | TV | Pole position | Fastest lap | Winner | |
| 18 March | Sky | Australian Grand Prix | Hamilton | Button | Button |
| 25 March | Sky | Malaysian Grand Prix | Hamilton | Raikkonen | Alonso |
| 15 April | BBC | Chinese Grand Prix | Rosberg | Kobayashi | Rosberg |
| 22 April | Sky | Bahrain Grand Prix | Vettel | Vettel | Vettel |
| 13 May | BBC | Spanish Grand Prix | Maldonado | Grosjean | Maldonado |
| 27 May | BBC | Monaco Grand Prix | Webber | Perez | Webber |
| 10 June | Sky | Canadian Grand Prix | Vettel | Vettel | Hamilton |
| 24 June | BBC | European Grand Prix | Vettel | Rosberg | Alonso |
| 8 July | BBC | British Grand Prix | Alonso | Raikkonen | Webber |
| 22 July | Sky | German Grand Prix | Alonso | Schumacher | Alonso |
| 29 July | Sky | Hungarian Grand Prix | Hamilton | Vettel | Hamilton |
| 2 September | BBC | Belgian Grand Prix | Button | Senna | Button |
| 9 September | Sky | Italian Grand Prix | Hamilton | Rosberg | Hamilton |
| 23 September | BBC | Singapore Grand Prix | Hamilton | Hülkenberg | Vettel |
| 7 October | Sky | Japanese Grand Prix | Vettel | Vettel | Vettel |
| 14 October | BBC | Korean Grand Prix | Webber | Webber | Vettel |
| 28 October | Sky | Indian Grand Prix | Vettel | Button | Vettel |
| 4 November | BBC | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | Hamilton | Vettel | Raikkonen |
| 18 November | Sky | United States Grand Prix | Vettel | Vettel | Hamilton |
| 25 November | BBC | Brazilian Grand Prix |
STANDINGS
Drivers' Championship
| P | Driver | Team | Points |
| 01 | Sebastian Vettel (Ger) | Red Bull-Renault | 255 (5 wins) |
| 02 | Fernando Alonso (Spa) | Ferrari | 245 (3 wins) |
| 03 | Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) | Lotus-Renault | 198 (1 win) |
| 04 | Mark Webber (Aus) | Red Bull-Renault | 167 (2 wins) |
| 05 | Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) | McLaren-Mercedes | 165 (3 wins) |
| 06 | Jenson Button (Gbr) | McLaren-Mercedes | 153 (2 wins) |
| 07 | Nico Rosberg (Ger) | Mercedes GP | 93 (1 win) |
| 08 | Romain Grosjean (Fra) | Lotus-Renault | 90 |
| 09 | Felipe Massa (Brz) | Ferrari | 89 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez (Mex) | Sauber-Ferrari | 66 |
| 11 | Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) | Sauber-Ferrari | 50 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) | Force India-Mercedes | 49 |
| 13 | Paul di Resta (Gbr) | Force India-Mercedes | 44 |
| 14 | Michael Schumacher (Ger) | Mercedes GP | 43 |
| 15 | Pastor Maldonado (Ven) | Williams-Renault | 33 (1 win) |
| 16 | Bruno Senna (Brz) | Williams-Renault | 26 |
| 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 12 |
| 18 | Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 9 |
| 19 | Timo Glock (Ger) | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
| 21 | Vitaly Petrov (Rus) | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
| 22 | Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) | Lotus-Renault | 0 |
| 23 | Charles Pic (Fra) | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
| 25 | Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
Constructors' Championship
| P | Team | Points |
| 01 | Red Bull-Renault | 407 (7 wins) |
| 02 | Ferrari | 316 (3 wins) |
| 03 | McLaren-Mercedes | 306 (5 wins) |
| 04 | Lotus-Renault | 288 (1 win) |
| 05 | Mercedes GP | 136 (1 win) |
| 06 | Sauber-Ferrari | 116 |
| 07 | Force India-Mercedes | 93 |
| 08 | Williams-Renault | 59 (1 win) |
| 09 | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 21 |
| 10 | Marussia-Cosworth | 0 |
| 11 | Caterham-Renault | 0 |
| 12 | HRT-Cosworth | 0 |
No comments:
Post a Comment